~ J.B. Priestley
I love Winter. The sharp steely air that rips the breath out of your lungs and creates foggy sculptures in mid-flight. The ground, frozen and hard that crunches underneath exploring feet wrapped in warm woolly sock and pragmatic boot. And if one is really lucky, the magical dance of a snow storm.
Washington, D.C. has had its third snowfall since our white Christmas and they are calling for more this coming week. With all the problems that a large-for-this-area snowfall causes, I am still ecstatic. For the sanguine in me, the snow has put a damper on my social butterfly doings, but the melancholic-phlegmatic in me is relieved to take some time to just rest and be myself.
Oddly enough, it is during storms like this [and especially huge thunderstorms in the summer] that I miss my life in the country. Rachel Carson once said that a rainy day was the perfect day to walk in the woods. So is a snowy day. There is something truly otherworldly about a landscape that you know like your face covered in an icy white mask. The earth is like a person ~ no matter how long you have known them, or spoken to them, there is always something you have not learned, some aspect of their personality or a hidden dream you have not yet discovered.
That tall majestic maple you napped under in June, how different she looks in February! In June, her majesty was almost casual and hidden. Now, stripped of her leafy clothes, she shines like a precious gem with her evening cloak of white ermine. The summer garden, beaten down in late fall, has been laid to rest with dignity under a funeral veil of ice.
Winter lays things bare and then dresses them up in white, bringing out hidden beauties that the other seasons cannot call forth. The snow may be an inconvenience but take it as it comes and use it as an excuse to lay bare your hidden dreams and loves. Get out and rediscover a well-loved landscape. You may be surprise at what you find out.
Oremus pro invicem,
Mikaela
